The Social Media Strategy That Scored Big Wins for Athletic Greens Brands need modern marketing approaches to connect with modern audiences. Learn how Athletic Greens meets that challenge.
By Terry Rice Edited by Dan Bova
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As an entrepreneur or busy professional, you can't show up as the best version of yourself if you have poor eating habits. However, you sometimes have to decide between showing up as the best possible version of yourself and showing up on time. We all know how important it is to include vegetables and fruits in our diet, but it can be challenging to do so with such a demanding schedule.
This is a problem Athletic Greens aims to solves. The powdered "green" drink consists of 75 different whole foods and other ingredients to boost your health, nourish the digestive tract, and protect the body from damaging free radicals. Although there are many products on the market that offer supplementation of fruits and vegetables, Athletic Greens promises to offer "Better nutrient density per serving than any other product on the market."
I tried Athletic Greens after hearing it mentioned on Dr. Michael Gervais' Finding Mastery Podcast and immediately became a fan. I've drastically reduced my coffee intake and feel more energized during the day. As a father, this is a big win for me. I'm able to spend more time with my kids in the morning and I'm not all hopped up on caffeine while doing so. As a marketer, I was curious to learn more about how Athletic Greens leveraged unique approaches to connecting with their audience, which now includes their own podcast, Inspiring Lives.
Amy Endemann, VP of Marketing for Athletic Greens, shared insights into this and more during a recent interview. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation.
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Separating from the pack
"There are piles of greens supplements out there, plus multivitamins, green juices, kombucha, probiotics — you name it. Athletic Greens is different because it's comprehensive. In all, there are 75 ingredients in the formula, which can be taken daily, safely, over a long period of time. Athletic Greens is especially beloved by people with digestive and gut health issues — in fact, that's why Chris Ashenden, our founder, developed the product in the first place. No matter how hard we try, it's difficult to eat a perfect diet every single day. Athletic Greens helps people fill the gaps in their diet with nutritional insurance to help them feel great and perform at their best."
Leveraging podcasts to connect
"Athletic Greens has grown significantly from investment in other people's podcasts, like Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, and Dr. Michael Gervais. So, we decided to launch our own podcast to test the waters of an emerging format that's becoming really powerful in creating authentic conversations with diverse audiences. We started by interviewing a lot of our sponsored podcast partners for our initial Inspiring Lives episodes, which tended to focus heavily on performance mindsets and entrepreneurship. Since then, we've seen the most success by expanding to a broad range of subjects, from nutrition and Paleo lifestyles with Robb Wolff, to running marathons and overcoming mental and physical hurdles with Emily Abbate, to how curiosity informs business strategies with Chip Conley. The podcast has performed well for customer engagement, but we've also seen some nice wins on the acquisition side."
Related: 10 Top Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Health Regimen Secrets
The value of user-generated content on social media
"User-generated content (UGC) has regularly outperformed branded content in both paid and organic social. We get a lot of "green selfies" with folks posting their greens in gorgeous locations, as well as unboxing experiences. We regularly repost to IG Stories and also test content in our paid campaigns. The UGC paid campaigns tend to perform best with retargeting audiences, helping the brand resonate more personally with various audiences by bringing in an everyday human element."
Related: Why Your Health Is the Key to Your Success in Business
A focus on presentation
"The new unboxing experience was a long time coming. One of our goals is to become a part of every customer's daily routine. We wanted to give customers the right tools to make Athletic Greens easy to use and make it feel like a premium experience. Now, when you sign up for a subscription, your first order includes a reusable ceramic jar and scoop for the greens powder, a shaker to mix up your greens with water, plus a handful of travel packs to keep you covered when you're on the go. People have been pretty stoked on this experience and have been posting their unboxing moments to Instagram. As we began reposting that content in our Stories, we started to see some of the highest engagement in our brand's history. Unboxing content has also outperformed brand content in paid social channels."
Would you like to learn more about how Athletic Greens -- and other brands -- leverage user-generated content to create a more genuine connection with their audience? Sign up for the free Entrepeneur Insider workshop Get Better Engagement and Build Trust With Customers Now.
